Run Hard at the Rainbow Bridge My Angel Sock-M! I Love You Baby Girl! Now that your Mom Starlit is up there too, please help her learn the ropes, love and keep her company until I can see you both again. Starlit I love you!http://i14.tinypic.com/2a8q345.jpg

maberi wrote:Country Max sells the horse vet wrap that works really well. We used that and a bag of frozen peas on Earl's leg for his daily icings

We have a small wrap around pack for now, I'm not sure where it came from, but it was in the freezer from some injury or another! and a canine knee-specific one on the way.

I didn't think of the horse vet-wrap, I have a few rolls of that around. good call!

Katrina - thanks for the info! The water up at camp is pretty shallow over at the islands, I wonder if that would work well for regulating depth.

We have a vet appointment for the drawer test on Monday.

It should...just make sure he is WALKING and not swimming...my only concern is the grounding...if it's sandy/uneven, I wouldn't want to see him injure it more b/c he loses his footing...I have the list of exercises that Nemo was given before we did the surgery to strengthen the muscles in his legs (actually, it's the same as what we've been doing now, LOL). I'm more than happy to scan them and send them to you, if you want...

Also, ask the vet to do an x-ray, if you can...they can tell alot by the amount of effusion in the knee, and is especially helpful if Conner tenses up and doesn't allow them to do the drawer test or the slide test...Peter was able to tell more about Nemo's knee from the x-rays than he was from the tests he did...

And, one more thing, ilioid injuries often look very much like a knee injury (when Apache hurt himself, I swore up and down it was his knee, and it turned out to be a strained ilioid)...so, see if your vet can palpate the ilioid to see if there's tenseness or spasms...

Okay, really, this is the last thing if it IS a knee injury, be careful what you do with him b/c knee injuries can lead to ilioid injuries...AND, I'm sure you know this, but if it IS the knee, there is a 60% chance that he'll injure the other one...so be very careful!

katiek0417 wrote:Okay, really, this is the last thing if it IS a knee injury, be careful what you do with him b/c knee injuries can lead to ilioid injuries...AND, I'm sure you know this, but if it IS the knee, there is a 60% chance that he'll injure the other one...so be very careful!

yup, Xander's been doing fine with one bum knee for over a year...and just blew his other one.

"I don't have any idea if my dogs respect me or not, but they're greedy and I have their stuff." -- Patty Ruzzo

"Dogs don't want to control people. They want to control their own lives." --John Bradshaw

I too would love to see those exercises, if I could. I just brought my dog Allie home from surgery #2 on her right knee. She tore her CCL in both knees and shredded the meniscus, so we just had that removed along with the plate from her TPLO. *sigh* So anything I can do to prevent another surgery on her left knee would be good. Thanks!!

I too would love to see those exercises, if I could. I just brought my dog Allie home from surgery #2 on her right knee. She tore her CCL in both knees and shredded the meniscus, so we just had that removed along with the plate from her TPLO. *sigh* So anything I can do to prevent another surgery on her left knee would be good. Thanks!!

Monica

I have to scan them, and I'll send them to Michelle, then, perhaps she can post them larger on here so people can see them...

Nemo, at 7 weeks post-op, is looking fantastic...he even trotted the other day, and you almost couldn't tell that he was only 7 weeks post-TPLO...he's not even off-loading anymore when he stands still....so I am VERY happy with his progress!

Sending many, many butt scratches his way - that crate rest must be killing him more than the pain in his knee.

I don't know what they told Michelle, but Nemo had a partial tear...they figured his was about 25% torn (and they confirmed that when they opened him up), but in some cases, the tear can heal enough that it will never affect them again...In other cases, like Nemo's, therapy did not work and we had to opt for surgery...

Now, a lot of what they decide is dependent on the dog's age, activity level, and level of fitness....